Mexican beer blog

Today I want to talk about another drink made with cerveza and chili, but that is not such as popular as it is the michelada or margarita itself and it’s equally tasty and delicious in its own way.

This kind of drink named Margacheve in spanish. Marga for margarita, and -cheve for beer. Cheve it’s a slang form in México to say beer (just for the record). Its made also in different kinds of flavors and the most common ones are usually mango,tamarind, lemon and strawberry, it has Chile and salt as top frost, or sometimes sugar. Basically the idea is that the beer slowly starts to mix with the margarita as you are sipping it.

I really recommend you to try it if you come to México. This one from the picture was of mango and the red color is liquid tamarind candy which is really popular in many drinks involving fruits,beer or candies.

This beer from Oaxaca caught my attention in a little fridge of a bar. I have to admit that many times I am attracted to those beers with nice image and presentation, and then I start asking for others not that eye catching.

Any way, after I ask it, I realized that was AGAVE,HONEY and ALE (5.5%alcohol) , which I thought was an interesting mix, regarding the fact that I have tasted other beers that had agave (but were really bad) and other beers that had other kinds of alcohols (or at least its flavor) on it as the Toro Mestizo (which I love).

But the best of this is that after a little research I found out that has honey from agave “Tlacolula” (from Oaxaca), not agave and then regular honey as I ignorantly thought.

At first sight it has a nice gold and cloudy color, with thick white head that slightly blears and a medium body.It’s taste has a minimal bitterness and it’s basically really sweat (for me), the taste of honey really conquers your mouth and let’s you feel a little the hop. The agave was there but wasn’t exactly the king of the party since the honey was really the protagonist here. And personally dind’t like that so much but if you’re fan of sweet beers you may like it.

Even though I haven’t taste the other beers from this little brewery (which I would really like to), I will tell you a little bit more about it. First of all the name “Teufel” in German means devil , they have 5 types of beer in the market , as far as I know and they really have a cool image (yes, I insist, image is important). Plus,they make all beers with local ingredients from Oaxaca!

Here are their current beers:

77 Agave Honey Ale: honey ale

Babalao: ancient ale

Chica mala (loved this name! means bad girl): imperial red ale

Evocación: Imperial Stout

Me vez y sufres (again, great name!) : Coffee stout

And I won’t write about them until I taste each of them!…I hope that day comes soon. Meanwhile I leave you their Facebook page where you will see their beers and news here.

Cerveza Homero it’s an artisanal beer from the state of Puebla which started in the year of 2008 when the founder was tired of going to the same old bars trying the same beers every time without having nothing new. That was the moment (as he testifies) that he think about doing his own beer and supporting the growing tendency in Mexico for artisanal beers.

I tried this beer a few months ago in one beer festival in Morelia, I’m personally fan of the dark beers such as dunkels,porters and stouts.

This beer style is dunkel weizen with 7% of alcohol, has a dark brown color, medium body and rich lather, the smell is not very invasive and intense but you can feel subtle roasted malt smell. Its bitterness is not as pronounced, so it may be good for those who want to start having beers with more intense flavors. At the very end you may feel a sweet flavor but not invasive taste.

In general terms I consider that it is a nice beer to have, and I would drink it several times for sure. If you are in Mexico and you have the chance, ask for this beer and tell me what you think.

This is the new beer of the TORO brewery from Querétaro, México, after 2 years of growing and obtaining more and more consumers of their delicious beers. Supernova Spicy porter” is their 4th type of beer apart from Toro mestizo, Toro k’atuun (mayan stout), and Toro Golden Ale beer. The last one was the first beer from Toro that went out to the market.

You should try it, has a special touch of brown sugar, cinnamon and anise.

No way, sorry I haven’t written down more about mexican beers, is not that I haven’t try more (because I’ve try way more) Is just I haven’t been that tough with me to write it down what I think about them beyond my cellphone… anyway this may be an apologize to myself and no one else but I’m starting to do this again and left my opinion towards the mexican beers that I’ve tried, and maybe start to talk about the foreign ones…. but first my beloved mexican because almost no one speaks about that…

The second Beer Festival in San Miguel de Allende will take place the 17th ,18th and 19th of August 2012 at the premises of the fair way to Querétaro.

Will have on display over 500 beer brands domestically and internationally.
In addition will an open a contest for the best craft beer of the festival, attendees will have the chance to make some tastings and also they would be able to buy a whole beer or more.
As expected in any festival, will be live music, food stands, a mechanical bull and you’ll be able to enjoy also a nice Mexican touch: the mariachi.

At first I didn’t knew what to expect, I was choosing mi next beer in my favorite store and I saw Jack. Simple label, totally black and the gold & silver logo. I decided to taste it, I was expecting a normal stout beer, nothing more, nothing less. But I have to be sincere, it’s flavor was beyond my expectations, it’s combination of malts, chocolate, and the nice notes of coffee and hazelnuts was just delicious. Has an intense black color and pearly brown foam. Nice smell to coffee and a touch of dark chocolate…. one of the last taste that is left on your mouth I still don’t know exactly what is it, but I just love it! may be the hazelnuts with something more… who knows! But I highly recommend you to taste this beer, it worth’s it!

This beer is from the brewery TORO, in the precious and little city of Querétaro. I have to say that this is one of my big favorite mexican beer, when I tasted I was really surprised about the taste that these guys had reached not only in this beer but also in the other two beers that they make; Toro Ka’tuun and Toro Golden Ale.Their distinctive characteristic is their smoked flavors. With this beer, the Toro mestizo they really make their point with “smoked”.

I’ll talk you first from the very first moment, the beer has 7% alcohol degree, with an opaque gold color, really smooth and attractive, with consistent foam but not invasive. Good body, and when you smell it you can feel the touch of smoked mezcal there, really soft but at the same time stronger enough to enjoy it and really realize that has mezcal there. The taste is fantastic, with the first zip you feel the typical flavor of the golden ale style of beer but as the flavor continues developing the mezcal becomes stronger. Really particular beer, that little touch of such a mexican beverage as the mezcal it’s just unique, and the best is that this flavor doesn’t invades the total essence of the beer, it is not invasive but acts as a great complement.

The brewery started doing this beer because of their first anniversary, and they did just 100 bottles to celebrate it. But was such the success that they continue doing it and sell it as one of their new beers on the market.

For those who are not that familiar with the “Mezcal”, this is a typical mexican alcoholic beverage resulting from the distillation of fermented juice of the agave heads. In general the Mezcal has a stronger taste than the Tequila, and also I could say that a purer taste, depending of the mezcal. The word “mezcal” refers to all agave distilled alcohol, so tequila is also considered as a type of mezcal, but one of the main differences is that Mezcal is made from a variety of Agaves, while tequila isn’t. Tequila is only produced in certain municipalities in the states of Jalisco, Michoacán, Nayarit and Tamaulipas, while the Mezcal comes from 7 states: Guanajuato, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas. If you want to know more about it you can search on internet about mezcal, what wikipedia says is not really complete so I’ll let you one page that in my opinion explains really well almost everything about mezcal, is written on Spanish tough but could be helpful anyway; Mezcalpedia.

The 2nd international beer festival Morelia 2012 will take place in the Convention center of this beautiful city of the south of Mexico.Morelia’s love for beer has been growing in the last years, and each year more and more new breweries come up, actually are around 300 little breweries just in Morelia.

The first edition of this festival took place in April 21th and 22 in the same place.This was the advertising:

This time above the beer,the tastes, and the food they will also have one special guest: Uruguay.

This 2nd edition of the event would be the 14th and 15th of july starting at 10 am and ending at 11:45 pm (15th july).

They will have conferencess, courses of how to do your own beer, how to taste it well, etc. You’ll find many of the breweries of Morelia and some of other states of Mexico. The entrance is free, they just charge you for the glass of the event (or you can either take yours). The tastes cost around 10-25 pesos each, but also you can buy the entire beer if you want.